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infrared sauna in garage (Photo credit: Uncleweed)

What's the latest "science" they're trying to sell you to treat autism? Infrared sauna therapy. Yep, you read that right. According to a recent wire story, a company that peddles saunas has teamed up with Generation Rescue--Jenny McCarthy's Generation Rescue--to "bring awareness to the therapeutic benefits of infrared saunas to the autism community." The company is kindly offering "half-size" saunas to accommodate sweating out the half-pint autistic child in your life. From what I can tell, these things are not cheap. Quoth the article:

Studies have shown that sauna therapy is a valuable clinical tool for treating autoimmune, toxicant-induced and other chronic health problems. Far infrared sauna therapy offers a component of depuration and offers a variety of health benefits to regular users including the removal of toxins in the body leading to increased health and brain function. More ...

Odd that. The three articles they cite to support their assertions show no such thing. The first paper they offer isn't a study, it's a review. That means it contains no original data. It appears to be a general discussion of the use of saunas, a la Scandinavians, for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pain, and "addiction." A second paper they cite is also a review of other studies and thus also contains no original data. Worth noting, this review paper says the following about saunas:

Despite much attention given to saunas with heaters emitting at specific electromagnetic frequencies, research to date suggests that there is no difference in toxicant excretion rates between perspiration that occurs through infrared sauna, dry or wet regular saunas, or exercise.

In other words, according to their own citation, Generation Rescue has teamed up with this sauna company to sell you to make you "aware" of something with effects you could achieve ... by simply exercising.

Their third and final citation is this one. It does contain original data, but not about the effectiveness of saunas for autism. No. It's a survey of naturopaths about the techniques they use for "detoxification therapies." To add to this featherweight accumulation of evidence, on its Website, the sauna company offers up the expert opinion of one Dutch physician ... who died in 1738. His apparent legacy to later generations was the advice that keeping your head cool and your feet warm would keep the doctor away. Daily apples, cold heads, warm feet. Got it.

Infrared sauna therapy might have some benefits for some health conditions (although I'd not recommend trying it for the autoimmune disease known as multiple sclerosis). But nothing in the lone study or in the two reviews cited specifically supports effectiveness of infrared sauna for autism. That might be in part because there's not an evidence base for asserting that autism is a condition that necessitates "detoxification," although there certainly is a cottage industry built up around selling this idea--and treatments for it--to concerned families. And it's not the first time Jenny McCarthy and Generation Rescue have been associated with such interventions. We've had hyperbaric oxygen therapy, chelation, Lupron (essentially chemical castration), and industrial strength bleach used against children with autism in pursuit of this heavy metal phantom. Is it any surprise that if it's OK to subject children to confinement in HBOT chambers, injections, and bleach enemas, forced sweating could so easily be added to the list?